Quick Tip: Vault Copy Design

Using the Copy Design tool within Autodesk Vault to create a new design based on an existing design is a great way to hit the ground running with a new design. For those not familiar with the command, it allows you to select an assembly within Vault and make a copy of it using a different filename.

While making a copy of the main assembly is nice, it also allows you to copy associated drawings as well as copy selected components or reuse existing components within your new design. If you’re working on a large assembly, remembering every file that needs to be copied as new as well as trying to determine every new filename at once can be a grueling task. a simplified approach to using the Copy Design tool is to first copy your top level assembly and drawing to your new working folder.

You now have a copy of your original design re-using all the original component parts. Now here comes the actual tip part of this discussion. If you need to copy a few components as new but are not still 100% sure of all the components that need to be modified as new components, use the copy design tool on your new assembly file this time. When the copy design dialog appears, change the action on the assembly from’ copy’ to ‘reuse’. You can now select a component within your new assembly to copy.

This allows you to use the copy design tool on your new assembly as many times as you need to in order to generate your final new design. Later in the design process if you need to copy more components, simply check the assembly back into the vault to repeat the copy process for the additional components.

This example shows us creating a new suspension spring for the suspension.iam assembly using copy design.

From past experience, most average users assume the copy design tool can only be used once to initiate the design process and then rely on cumbersome save-as or design assistant operations within vault to manage future changes. Find this tip helpful? Let me know.